#Touch bar simulator update#
#Touch bar simulator simulator#
#Touch bar simulator download#

#Touch bar simulator simulator#

You’ll now see the Touch Bar Simulator on your screen.īuild and run the app, you’ll notice the Touch Bar is empty, aside from the System Button and Control Strip.īefore you can add anything to the Touch Bar, you’ll need to tell the system your application can customize the Touch Bar. With the project open, go to Window > Show Touch Bar. The application is a very simple Travel Log, that only does what is needed for the purposes of our tutorial.

#Touch bar simulator download#

You’re probably ready to get started! To follow along, download this sample project here. Just remember the guidelines, and you should be good to go. From text size and color, to images, you can offer your users a modern approach to the keyboard that hasn’t been available before. You can customize your items quite a bit. It allows you to add simple labels, buttons, and all sorts of other controls.

Custom: This is probably going to be your go-to item for a lot of things.

Color Picker: Pretty much says it all (a color picker if you didn’t catch it ] ).

Popover: Hide more functionality behind another item.

Some of the NSTouchBarItem subclasses include features like: To add support for the TouchBar in your apps, you use some new classes provided by Apple: NSTouchBar and NSTouchBarItem (and its subclasses). Similarly, when someone taps a virtual button on the touch bar, they also expect immediate results.

Respond Immediately: When users tap a key on the keyboard, they expect immediate results.

Don’t distract the user with scrolling content or alerts.

The Touch Pad is an extension of the Keyboard and Trackpad, not a display: Yes, it’s a screen, but it’s not a secondary display.

Apple says that the Touch Bar can even be disabled, so don’t count on your users to always see it. If you’re going to put it in the Touch Bar, make sure you can perform the action somewhere else in your app.

Don’t expose functionality just in the Touch Bar: This isn’t the place to keep things secret from users that haven’t upgraded their hardware yet.

Very briefly, here are a few sections of the guide that really stand out:

You should familiarize yourself with them here, as they are very important to maintaining a consistent pattern to your users. Control Strip: This is a replacement of your familiar keys that you’d use to control screen brightness, volume, or music playback.Īs with every new technology from Apple, there are a set of Human Interface Guidelines that you should follow when working with the Touch Bar.App Region: The default area provided for your app to show items.

System Button: Depending on context, this will show a system level button, like Esc.There are three default sections on the Touch Bar:

#Touch bar simulator update#

If you do not see 16B2657, you can download the update from Apple.Īs mentioned, the Touch Bar is a small touch screen that allows users to interact with apps (and their computer) in a whole new way. To check, go to  > About This Mac, and click where you see 10.12.1. If you do not have this version, you will not be able to show the Touch Bar Simulator. You will also need to ensure that you have macOS 10.12.1, build 16B2657 installed on your computer first. Note: This tutorial requires Xcode version 8.1 or later.